Dylan Field live at Config: Intuition, simplicity, and the future of design
30 Jun 2024 (3 months ago)
Introduction
- Dylan Field's conversation with Anie is recorded live at Figma Config in front of a live audience.
- This is the first-ever live recording of the podcast.
- The conversation delves into Dylan's product taste, intuition, the future of product management, and Figma's simplicity.
- Dylan shares stories from Figma's early days and his favorite AI tool, Web Sim.
- A clip of a young Dylan Field acting is shown at the end of the podcast.
Welcoming Dylan Field
- Dylan thanks Anie for inviting him to the podcast and expresses his excitement about the live format.
- He acknowledges the impressive setup of the live studio and jokes about the possibility of hidden wires and people behind the curtain.
- Anie asks Dylan about his well-being after two days of Config and any surprises or highlights from the event.
- Dylan praises the Config community and feels lucky to be a part of it.
- He mentions feeling exhausted but energized by caffeine and a probiotic drink.
Highlights and surprises from Config
- Dylan Field was pleased with the Config conference overall.
- He was particularly impressed with the demos and presentations by Emil and Mika.
- He is excited about the conversation that is starting around AI and its impact on design.
The philosophy of design
- Dylan Field believes that design is art applied to problem-solving.
- He acknowledges that there are many definitions of design, but he prefers this one because it captures the creative and problem-solving aspects of design.
- He believes that design should not be purely artistic, but should also be functional and solve a user need.
Raccoon feet and muffin hands
- Figma had a tradition of asking employees during lunch conversations: "Would you rather have raccoons for feet or muffins for hands?"
- The question is meant to be philosophical and thought-provoking, with no right or wrong answer.
- The speaker ponders the practical implications of having raccoons for feet or muffins for hands, such as typing with muffin hands or the raccoons' unpredictable movements.
- The speaker also considers the potential upsides, like eating the muffins if they regenerate.
Building and refining intuition and product taste
- Rick Rubin, a music producer, describes his role as someone who can identify what he likes and dislikes in music, despite not having technical abilities or knowledge.
- The speaker compares this to his own strength in intuition and product taste when it comes to designing Figma.
- The speaker explains his framework for building intuition: constantly generating hypotheses, debating them, finding data to support or negate them, and narrowing down to a working hypothesis.
- The speaker mentions that he reads every tweet about Figma and shares them with colleagues, as part of his process of constantly ingesting information about the product.
- He also emphasizes the importance of asking questions and trying to understand the root problems that users are trying to solve.
How to influence leadership
- Dylan Field discusses how he approaches changing his mind based on feedback.
- He mentions an example of initially being skeptical about implementing Pages in Figma but eventually agreeing due to user demand.
- Field emphasizes the importance of building trust with team members and being open to trying new ideas.
- Dylan Field shares his strategies for influencing leadership and changing their minds.
- He highlights the effectiveness of presenting concrete artifacts and examples when making a case.
- Field stresses the value of asking detailed questions to fully understand a proposal.
- He mentions the importance of seeking answers to unanswered questions before making a decision.
- Field emphasizes the significance of understanding something from first principles and taking a perfectionist approach to decision-making.
The role of product managers
- PMs are crucial in bringing together designers, engineers, and researchers to create great products.
- Good PMs avoid treating their role solely as a process and instead focus on solving problems, having a strategy, and bringing everyone together to achieve a shared goal.
- PMs act as the glue that holds teams together and ensures that projects stay on track and meet objectives.
- Intuition is a key ingredient in design, allowing designers to make quick decisions and come up with creative solutions.
- Simplicity is essential for creating user-friendly and effective designs.
- The future of design lies in combining intuition and simplicity to create products that are both beautiful and functional.
The future of product management
- The future of product management involves everyone learning to do a bit more of everyone else's job.
- There's still immense value in product management, design, and engineering, so these roles will continue to exist.
- The best product managers create frameworks that bring everyone else along and have a point of view and strategy associated with them.
- They take the strategy and point of view, wrap it all up in a framework, and make it so that everyone knows the destination and how to get there.
The importance of simplicity in design
- Simplicity is crucial in design as it prevents products from becoming overly complex and incomprehensible.
- Adding more features doesn't always equate to a better product; it can lead to diminishing returns and increased complexity.
- Figma strives to enhance its capabilities without compromising simplicity, which requires constant attention and monitoring.
- Complexity can arise even when individual decisions are sound, necessitating a holistic review of systems.
- Lenny Rachitsky, the host, mentions that Figma's recent redesign was likely driven by increasing complexity.
- Dylan Field agrees and acknowledges that simplifying certain aspects of the old Figma was a priority.
- Figma constantly battles against the tendency for products to become more complicated over time.
- Dylan emphasizes that everyone involved in the design process is responsible for maintaining simplicity.
- A guiding principle is to keep simple things simple and make complex things possible.
The long road to Figma’s launch
- Figma took three and a half years to launch and five years to get its first paid customers.
- The company faced challenges in hiring and recruiting, which slowed down the product development process.
- Figma's director of engineering played a crucial role in catalyzing the product's shipment.
Advice for aspiring entrepreneurs
- Ship products quickly to get feedback and iterate faster.
- Figma and FigJam are examples of products that were shipped quickly and benefited from user feedback.
- Don't be discouraged by the simplicity of a product; it may have taken a long time to develop.
Knowing when it’s time to ship
- Consider the trade-offs between quality, features, and deadline when deciding when to ship a product.
- Software can be iteratively improved over time, so it's not necessary to have all features and perfect quality at launch.
- Determine the minimum awesome product (MAP) that meets a certain quality bar and push it out, then continue to improve it iteratively.
Early user acquisition strategies
- Dylan Field used a script to identify influential designers on Twitter and reached out to them to introduce Figma and gather feedback.
- Designers, such as Pabi, provided valuable feedback, including a comprehensive document outlining desired improvements.
- Dylan Field personally assisted early customers like Koda, even driving back to their office to resolve technical issues.
- Shashir, a mentor to Dylan Field and the Figma team, was the first customer of Figma and the first to use it as a team.
Spotting trends and future innovations
- Dylan Field is known for spotting trends ahead of others.
- He was early on WebGL, which allowed Figma to exist.
- He tweeted about Crypto punks before they became valuable.
- He is currently excited about WebSim, a hallucinatory internet that allows users to build their own universes.
- WebSim uses models like CLA or GPT-40 to generate content.
- The more you use WebSim, the more you construct a context window of the universe you're building.
- Dylan describes WebSim as a "Lean Forward entertainment Tool" using the internet.
- He tried WebSim and generated an invented Gmail inbox that looked accurate.
- WebSim works by typing a URL or prompt in the URL field, and it will invent what that website would look like.
Reflections on leadership and growth
- Dylan Field reflects on his journey from intern to leading a thousand-person company.
- He emphasizes the importance of constant adaptation, growth, and change.
- Mentorship can come from various sources, including the community, employees, investors, and even those he mentors.
- Dylan mentions how interns and new founders have taught him valuable lessons.
- He expresses gratitude and feels humbled by the Figma community and the opportunity to serve and improve their lives.
- Dylan acknowledges the responsibility to make Figma more simple, powerful, and responsible.
- He highlights the goal of advancing the state of the craft and championing design and quality.
- Dylan appreciates the patience and support of the community as they strive to make an impact.
Lightning round
- Dylan is excited about the future of computing and the incredible technology and products that can be built.
- He encourages everyone to build cool stuff and share it with him.
- His preferred methods of contact are email, Twitter, and Slack.
- Dylan finds it fascinating to explore different LMS platforms and discover their unique strengths.
- He enjoys experimenting with them to unlock their full potential.
- Dylan doesn't have a specific life motto, but he appreciates the advice that "when people give you advice, they're not giving you advice, they're giving themselves advice in your shoes."
- Dylan was a child actor at the age of 5 and a half.
- He acknowledges that his differentiators at that time, such as reading, sitting still, and cuteness, became less relevant as he hit puberty.
- He ultimately decided to pursue computer science.
- A vintage commercial for ET toys is played.
- Dylan comments that the commercial led to the company's bankruptcy.